Have you heard? President Joe Biden has united the country around the issue of Ukraine because of his incredibly effective leadership.

At least that’s the story coming from the administration’s resident Baghdad Bob, Andrew Bates. Biden’s deputy press secretary took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to engage in some next-level coping, and you’ll quickly see why that’s the case if you keep reading.

The latest data showing @POTUS has unified the country with his response to Russia's heinous attack on Ukraine and democratic values. https://t.co/XL7pkSRCCj

— Andrew Bates (@AndrewJBates46) March 1, 2022

Wow, wow, wow! Americans almost universally support doing what Ted Cruz was begging Democrats to do over a month ago. Surely, this is because Biden has rallied the nation behind his gracious and competent abilities as Commander in Chief, right?

Yeah, about that. If you literally go to the very next slide CBS News shows, it looks like this.

Same poll has Biden, specifically, underwater with respect to Ukraine/Russia. pic.twitter.com/b9yRf3oJwj

— EJ (@Ejmiller25) March 1, 2022

Yes, that’s a 41 percent approval rating for Joe Biden on the issue of Ukraine, and that’s actually one of his better marks. He’s down at 30 percent on inflation, for example. Worse, if you dig even deeper, the president’s approval with Independents regarding Ukraine is only 35 percent. Clearly, the White House’s ridiculous attempt to give Biden credit for “uniting the world” against Russia is not resonating, especially given it is the Ukrainians themselves doing all the work while European nations take the lead on providing sanctions and aid.

So what does this have to do with the State of the Union address Biden will deliver tonight? I think these numbers show, fairly definitively, that even on an issue as black and white as Russia invading Ukraine, the president doesn’t have the ability to bluster his way past his failures. Yes, Americans support sanctions on Russia, but Biden has stood in the way of sanctions for months. He is the one who green-lit the Nordstream 2 pipeline. He is the one who killed domestic oil production, making the United States energy dependent on Vladimir Putin.

In other words, Americans can walk and chew gum at the same time. They can agree that Russia’s actions are bad while still assigning blame to who is responsible for much of their country’s woes. And the message is clear: They believe Joe Biden is the one to blame. Far short of uniting the country, the agreement on sanctions has come in spite of his horrific decision-making.

When Biden takes the podium for his State of the Union, he’s going to attempt to take credit for a litany of things, with the subsiding of COVID-19 being chief among them. Just like with the Ukraine issue, though, it’s not going to work. Omicron killed the coronavirus, not Joe Biden, and people understand that. When the president tries to brag about job growth, people will understand the context is that the government killed those jobs in the first place. When he tries to claim wages are up, people will understand that inflation has far outpaced wage growth.

You get the idea. Most Americans are awake now, and they are not going to be fooled by a senile old man stumbling through a teleprompter speech, trying to take credit for things he didn’t do. Biden’s presidency has been a disaster, and no amount of coping and spin is going to change that. I do not expect the typical State of the Union bounce this year. Instead, look for Biden to continue to languish. Even if he manages to make it through his speech, it’s going to be a disaster.